


First Lights

by moreofalark



Category: New Girl
Genre: Christmas Fluff, F/M, New Girl Secret Santa 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 20:53:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13131984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moreofalark/pseuds/moreofalark
Summary: For Mrnickmiller on tumblr.Nick is sentimental, Schmidt is Jewish, and Jess is surprised.





	First Lights

**Author's Note:**

> Happy holidays to Mrnickmiller on tumblr! 
> 
> (special thanks to Lara for beta-ing and reminding me how to write for New Girl)

Nick Miller had made a lot of bad decisions in his life, but this was probably the worst. 

The view from his roof was perfectly suburban, white picket fences and artificial Californian grass spreading out into the horizon. What an idyllic Christmas image. Nick turned his attention back to his roof and the tangles of lights clumped in his fists. Okay, it wasn’t his roof, it was Schmidt’s- but he could picture himself with his own roof and a house to go under it. He’d mow the lawn in the summer, and grow a garden. Jess would read on the porch, and at night they’d drink wine and watch the Cubs, fireplace sizzling. There were faults in his plan, of course (a fireplace in July? In Los Angeles?)- but the mere thought brought a smile to his face nonetheless. A home with Jess was a possibility. He still couldn’t wrap his head around it.

“You doing okay up there?” From above Winton seemed small as he clutched the bottom of the ladder. Nick glanced at his friend, and then back at the tangled lights in his fists. He may have made a few mistakes. “You’ve been standing there doing nothing for the last five minutes. Nick, I love ya, but you’re heavy and I am not a bodybuilder.”

Nick sagged against the gutter. “All the lights are tangled and I have a hammer but no nails, Winston. I’ve never put up lights before, and this is looking like a damn mess,” he confessed. “Jess and Cece will be back soon, and-”

“Okay. Okay, it’s going to be fine.” Nick could imagine the squashed, nervous look on Winston’s face. “We just need to get, uh- a hammer, and-”

“I have the hammer, I need the nails!”

“Well where does Schmidt keep his nails?”

“How am I supposed to know?” Winston dragged a hand across his face, sending the ladder tipping for one perilous second. Nick saw his life flash before his eyes and was reminded of how great he looked in tracksuits.

“I dunno, ask Schmidt!” 

“Ask me what?”Schmidt said, head popping out of a window directly below Nick. “Why are my buffoon friends hanging up lights on my very expensive home? Why, when I have made it very clear that we celebrate Chanukah in this household, is there no menorah on my lawn but a giant, inflatable snowman?”

Nick scoffed. “Snowmen are non denominominational.”

“Nicholas Miller, are you on the roof?” Schmidt’s head was fully out of the window now, eyes impossibly wide.

“Nope, I’m on a ladder,” Nick replied, gesturing to the rung below his feet, which then began to sway.

Winston tittered down below. “I got you, man!” 

“Idiots, all around me.” Schmidt made a strangled noise and slammed the window shut. He was right, Nick thought: hanging lights on Christmas Eve Eve was a terribly rash idea that only people with better hand-eye coordination than him were capable of achieving. He sighed, the strings of bulbs collapsing on the roof ledge. It was a dumb idea to begin with, making Jaipur Aviv a picture-perfect winter wonderland while Jess was out shopping with Cece. He thought it would be romantic but in the light of day he could see it was crazy. One day, she would be the death of him.

Nick had made a lot of bad decisions in his life, especially when Jess was around. 

He could still picture her in his car that first Christmas, doleful eyes wrapped in a soft pink coat. As he drove to the airport her melancholy smile had haunted him from the passenger seat. Even then, all he wanted to do was make her happy. He melted like putty in her hands, wheeling his car around and speeding back towards the lights she mentioned hours ago. What was it called again? “Candy Cane Lane”. What a stupid name. Jess belonged there, with the fake snowmen and sparkling lights. She was too perfect to be real.

The lights were beautiful when they finally turned on, that was true. But more important to him was the grin on Jess’s face as she took in the wonder around her. He had loved her then: her beauty, her enthusiasm, that spark of passion he was always missing. He loved her now, more each and every day, but it was different: she was not an image of serenity but an actual person who made mistakes and was sometimes cranky and unkind. And he loved her even more when she was. 

Nick turned back to the drooping lights. Maybe Jaipur Aviv couldn’t be a perfect “Candy Cane Lane” when left to his shoddy handiwork, Schmidt’s obstinate Judaism, and Winston. But it didn’t mean he couldn’t try. 

...

It was dark by the time Jess and Cece got home from the mall. Though usually energized by gift shopping, Jess was exhausted. What was she supposed to buy her dad for Christmas when he already had a sweater in every color of the rainbow? She was running out of ideas.

The street was black, Jess’ car’s headlights a beacon through the suburb. Beside her, Cece groaned, hand on her stomach. “I cannot wait for the new year so I can get this baby out of my body,” she muttered, rolling her ankles. At twenty-eight weeks, Cece was really starting to feel the strain of holding an entire person in her belly. Still, Jess eyed Cece’s stomach with envy, thoughts on a kicking infant of her own. A family with Nick was a possibility. She still couldn’t wrap her head around it.

They pulled into the driveway. There were no lights on inside the house, which was strange- it wasn’t that late. Cece got out of the car relatively quickly and headed towards the front door. “I’ll go get Schmidt, to help with the bags.” 

And then Jess was alone with the stars in the driveway of Jaipur Aviv. But suddenly it was not so dark, but radiantly bright. Jess stared as the front of Cece’s house lit up, twinkling lights dangling from every windowsill. On the lawn sprouted a large, inflatable snowman. She stared in disbelief at the scene. 

“Merry Christmas, Jess.” Nick’s outline was lit by the lights around him. 

“Nick, what?”

“It’s our own Candy Cane Lane. I made it, for you.”

She gasped and immediately set out across the lawn, meeting him in the middle of the wonderland he had created. She pressed her lips against his, melting as he wrapped his arms around her waist. They kissed until she ran out of breath, and pulling away, she felt a grin spread across her face. Every kiss felt like the first.

Nick pressed their foreheads together, breath heavy. “We went to see the lights, on our first Christmas together. Remember?”

She giggled. “You missed your flight.”

“I always do.” This year they were staying in L.A, in what would actually be their last Christmas in the loft. Jess looked forward to spending the holiday cozied up watching Christmas movies with Nick, sleeping in late. But tonight, despite the cold, she was glad to be with him on Schmidt and Cece’s lawn. It would be a happy Christmas, she decided: the first of many together.


End file.
